Picking a name to produce under

General discussion, news, info, new releases etc.
Post Reply
limbs
Posts: 6
Joined: October 26th, 2012, 7:49 pm

Picking a name to produce under

Post Posted

I had picked the name Limbs to produce under last year, and have been underway some music.
Before this, a band existed named limbs, but they haven't been active for years.
Some emo band just popped up now this year, also named limbs.
Should I just not care and eventually release my music under the name limbs anyways?
User avatar
killsaly
Posts: 164
Joined: December 20th, 2010, 5:45 am
Location: Baltimore
Contact:

Re: Picking a name to produce under

Post Posted

Those one word music projects can be difficult to not find duplicates. I mean, why are there two bands called Ceremony active in the US, one from Virginia (the good shoegaze one) and one from California? If you like limbs, go with limbs. Maybe you differentiate yourself by going all caps or all lowercase. LIMBS limbs limbz
limbs
Posts: 6
Joined: October 26th, 2012, 7:49 pm

Re: Picking a name to produce under

Post Posted

killsaly wrote:Those one word music projects can be difficult to not find duplicates. I mean, why are there two bands called Ceremony active in the US, one from Virginia (the good shoegaze one) and one from California? If you like limbs, go with limbs. Maybe you differentiate yourself by going all caps or all lowercase. LIMBS limbs limbz
I think I'll just go with all lowercase. Thanks for the advice. Theres already a LIMBS (The inactive band) The name "Limbz" with a Z reminds me of a name for some rap-rock group. Haha.
eddiethreat
Posts: 12
Joined: January 16th, 2013, 10:46 pm

Re: Picking a name to produce under

Post Posted

i recomend doing a google search - should you find someone already using a name, you should pick another name. its just going to turn into a problem later. more often than not its the band that had the name first, regardless of how long its been since they last released a song that will win.

changing things up slightly may help sometimes, like a letter here or there, but capitilization will not help, since the internet is mainly all lowercase for searching etc.

as someone that has been making and releasing electronic music under various names since 1996, my advice is pretty good, i have alot of 'name' experience, real world, what will happen name experience.

its not worth trying to establish something under a name already used before. should you suceede in music, and we all want someone, anyone to like what we do, and if you end up getting popular you can absolutly expect someone to sue you.
User avatar
killsaly
Posts: 164
Joined: December 20th, 2010, 5:45 am
Location: Baltimore
Contact:

Re: Picking a name to produce under

Post Posted

I was thinking with limbz ...

You have METZ and then Majical Cloudz, and those are both cool names.
User avatar
Mcll
Posts: 413
Joined: November 19th, 2011, 11:58 pm
Location: New York
Contact:

Re: Picking a name to produce under

Post Posted

Start with discogs.com. Then you will have a real idea of who is performing under a name. In the case of "limbs", there is none. Just variations. Then if you are really concerned, you can attempt to trademark the name: http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/index.jsp That is for the US. If you are elsewhere you need to find the equivalent in your country.

Before you go through all that headache though, get some music together and put it all over the net. Grab your bandname in as many places as you can. [Facebook, Sound Cloud, Tumblr, Last.FM, BandCamp] 1. makes it more difficult for another band to do the same. 2. gives you priority for search engines and fans. If another bands fans get redirected to you, makes it more of a pain for them to maintain and they will give it up faster. If your "limbs", has a bigger draw than another. No one will contest it. Not in the internet age where there is little money to be squabbled over. Moreover it will come to name recognition and people looking for a specific sound.

Best advice I can give you though, is to make music BEFORE you worry about naming the project. Seen many bands run around grabbing real-estate and then failing to produce anything, or breaking up after just a few months. Wasted time.
Post Reply